Photonic crystals exhibit interesting physical phenomena (S. John, Phys. Rev. Lett. 1987, 58, 2486) and enable novel optical devices (H. Kosaka et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 1999, 74, 1370). The realization of photonic crystals based on ordering of monodispersed colloid spheres followed by infiltration of high-refractive index materials possesses the appealing feature that large photonic crystals may be realized without recourse to top-down nanolithographic patterning (A. Imhof, D. J. Pine, Nature 1997, 389, 948; B. T. Holland, C. F. Blanford, A. Stein, Science 1998, 281, 538; A. A. Zahidov et al. Science 1998, 282, 897; J. E. G. Wijnhoven, W. L. Vos, Science 1998, 281, 802). However, existing approaches for organizing colloid particles in ordered structures, provide no reproducible means of controlling the size and the density of defects which make up the resulting polycrystal, see M. Trau, D. A. Saville, I. A. Aksay, Science 1996, 272, 706; H. Miguez et al., Adv. Mat. 1998, 10, 480; K. E Davis, W. B. Russel, W. J. Glantschnig, J. Chem. Soc. Faraday Trans. 1991, 87, 411; H. W. Deckman, J. H. Dunsmuir, Appl. Phys. Lett. 1982, 41, 377; N. D. Denkov et al, Nature 1993, 361, 26; Rogach, A. L., Kotov, N. A.; Koktysh, D. S.; Ostrander, J. W.; Ragoisha, G. A. Chem. Mater. 2000, 12, 2721; M. Holdago et al. Langmuir 1999, 15, 4701; R. C. Hayward, D. A. Saville, I. A. Aksay, Nature 2000, 404, 56; O. Vickreva, O. Kalinina, E. Kumacheva, Adv. Mater. 2000, 2, 110; P. Jiang, J. F. Bertone, K. S. Hwang, V. L. Colvin, Chem. Mater. 1999, 11, 132. This militates against control over the establishment of delocalized Bloch waves inside the structures, just as amorphousness and polycrystallinity in electronic semiconductors impede the formation of sharply-defined electronic bandgaps, electron wave coherence, and high-mobility electron transport. The reproducible realization of highly perfected single crystals is thus of critical importance in the practical exploitation of novel photonic crystal phenomena.
Recently, several experimental studies have demonstrated that confinement can significantly enhance colloid crystal growth and ultimately produce single-crystal or close-to-single crystal structure, see E. Kim, Y. Jia, G. M. Whitesides, Adv. Mater. 1996, 8, 245; B. Gates, D. Qin, Y. Xia. Adv. Mater. 1999, 11, 466; K-hui Lin et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 2000, 85, 1770; P. Yang et al. Adv. Mater. 2001, 13, 427; G. A. Ozin, S. M. Yang, Adv. Mater. 2001, 11, 95.
It is particularly advantageous to provide a method for growing confined colloidal crystals which may be precursors or building blocks of photonic circuits.